THE FARMER'S WORK BEGINS

When Spring comes, the farmer has to get hopping. Feed supplies from a long winter may be dwindling so the ground needs to be prepared for a new planting of crops that will make food for the next winter.

Some of the remainder of last years crop remains in what I call "ground silos," contrasted to what we call silo where the silage is contained in an upright cylinder. These ground silos seem to be the wave of the future since I don't see other silos being constructed.

It is not at all uncommon to see huge tractors pulling immense pieces of equipment on the road. This tractor is pulling a planter (it's crumpled up on itself in order to make it roadworthy. When open, it no doubt would fill both lanes of the highway.

Grandpa Mueller with his horses or small tractor would pull a much smaller version of this disc. Around here, this seems to be the most common implement. Perhaps plowing turns up too much soil that has no organic matter in it, while this discing only "mixes up" the top layer of the soil.

Here you can see how the disc simply stirs up the topmost layer of the soil.

In recent years, I've begun to notice more and more "tracks" on tractors instead of the customary wheels. The biggest tractors here have 8 giant wheels; two on each side of the front and two on each side of the rear. Perhaps these tracks do not crush down the soil as tightly as do wheels.

In these here parts of Wisconsin, we have lots of hills. Normally that means that we have some connection with the movement of glaciers years ago. The glaciers left lots of stones in some fields and few in other fields. Here a bobcat scoots around a field picking up the larger stones and then making a deposit in the dump truck.

Our largest crop in central Wisconsin is the potato. It grows well in loose sandy loam and with all the irrigation pins, there is never a lack of water. This tractor/planter will put the potatoes right in the ground and automatically make a hilled row for them to grow in.

In addition to potatoes, central Wisconsin produces lots of good sweet corn. Other crops include green beans and carrots. Regular farmers raise alfalfa, soy beans, field corn, and sometimes oats, rye, or barley. Along with tourism, farming ranks high in our central Wisconsin economy.

I'd still take a little calf over all of the big tractor farm work!